New type of star found near the galaxy’s centre
A new type of star has been discovered in the heart of the Milky Way galaxy. The findings could shed new light on both the early formation history of the Milky Way – and how globular clusters are formed.

A subsurface ocean on distant Pluto
A new analysis has confirmed the existence of a liquid water ocean lying deep beneath Pluto’s frozen surface. The latest data collected by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during its historic close flyby of the Pluto system in July 2015 -- provides the most detailed investigation yet of the role a subsurface liquid water ocean is likely to have played in the evolution of key features on the dwarf planet such as the vast, low-lying plain known as Sputnik Planitia.

Galileo launches into space aboard Ariane
An Ariane 5 rocket has blasted into orbit from the European Space Agency’s Kourou space port in French Guiana carrying four Galileo navigation satellites. The flight was the first time ESA had used the Ariane 5 for Galileo missions. All previous 14 Galileo launches were carried out aboard Russian Soyuz–Fregat rockets which can only carry two Galileo satellites at a time.

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Massive frozen water deposits found on Mars
Frozen beneath a region of cracked and pitted plains on Mars lies about as much water as what’s in Lake Superior, largest of North America’s Great Lakes. Scientists using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found the water ice deposit under the Utopia Planitia region of the red planet’s mid-northern latitudes.

EM Dive passes peer review
Scientists at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre Eagleworks Laboratories in Houston Texas have developed a new reactionless spacecraft propulsion system -- which if it really works -- could take people to Mars in just 70 days rather than seven months.
But there’s one really big problem it appears to violate one of the fundamental laws of physics.

New Expedition 50 crew arrives aboard the International Space Station
Three new crew members have arrived at the International Space Station two days after blasting into orbit aboard their Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the central Asian republic of Kazakhstan. The Expedition 50 mission means the International Space Station has now been continuously manned for more than 16 years and three weeks – making the longest ever continuous human habitation in space.

Chinese taikonauts return
Two Chinese taikonauts have returned safely to Earth following a month long stay aboard China’s Tiangong 2 orbiting space laboratory.
During their 30 day stay in orbit the crew conducted a range of experiments testing equipment needed for China’s planned new space station – the first core module of which is slated for launch in 2018.

Atlas V being reconfigured for Starliner missions
The United Launch Alliance have reconfigured their Atlas V 421 launch vehicle to handle Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule which will transport crew to the International Space Station. Starliners were slated to begin taking crew to the orbiting outpost next year – but that’s now been put back until 2018

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Most powerful Fast Radio Burst ever detected
Astronomers using the Parkes radio telescope have detected the most powerful fast radio burst ever seen. The research team have now used the mysterious radio eruption to study the large scale structure of the universe in unprecedented detail.

AXIONS could be dark matter particle
A hypothetical elementary particle called the AXION could be the mysterious dark matter particle which scientists have been searching for, for decades. New supercomputer modelling has pinned down the likely mass of the AXION particle – if it exists -- finding it’s within the same range as the hypothetical cold dark matter particle.

New experimental X-ray pulsar navigation satellite launched
China has carried out the second launch of its Long March 11 rocket taking a new experimental X-ray pulsar navigation satellite into orbit. The spacecraft is part of a ten year program to test a new autonomous deep space navigation system using millisecond X-ray pulses from 26 nearby neutron stars to create a navigation database to help determine a spacecraft’s position.

China launches a secretive new Earth observation satellite
Meanwhile, China has also launched a Long March 2D rocket carrying what they claim is the first of a new constellation of weather satellites. However, Beijing is keeping quiet about the new spacecraft claiming it’s designed to collect data on the atmospheric and marine environments.

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New clues about mysterious Fast Radio Bursts
Astronomers have detected a powerful blast of gamma ray energy coming from a mysterious event known as a Fast Radio Burst. The gamma ray event delivered over a billion times more energy in gamma-rays than in radio waves – there by rivalling the supernovae death of stars in their explosive power.

The power of the force appears the same across the cosmos
A new study indicates that the strength of the electromagnetic force appears to be the same across the cosmos after all.
The new findings contradict earlier studies which appeared to show a difference in the strength of the electromagnetic force in different parts of the universe.

A funnel on Mars could be a place to look for life
A strangely shaped depression on Mars could be a new place to look for signs of life on the Red Planet. A report in the journal Icarus claims the depression was probably formed by a volcano beneath a glacier and could have been a warm, chemical-rich environment well suited for microbial life.

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​Rosetta’s Comet 67P is much younger than previously thought
Rosetta’s comet 67P Churyumov–Gerasimenko may be only a billion years old – billions of years younger than previously thought. The new findings are based on simulations of how the two lobes which form the comet -- came together and remained connected.

Solving one of the mysteries of globular clusters
A new study has finally resolved where the material needed to make new generations of stars in globular clusters comes from. Because the stars were all originally formed from the same material – mystery has surrounded exactly how new generations of globular cluster stars are made.

Have scientists found a way to bypass the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Scientists have found a way to circumvent the Second Law of Thermodynamics – one of the bedrocks on which modern theoretical physics is based. It is one of a handful of laws about which physicists feel most certain about.

WorldView 4 launches on Atlas V rocket
An Atlas V rocket has blasted into orbit from the Vandenberg Air Force base in California carrying the WorldView 4 high resolution satellite. The flight had been delayed since September by fuel leaks and wildfires.

New gravity hypothesis could explain dark matter and dark energy
A new hypothesis of gravity might explain dark matter and dark energy – the two biggest mysteries in science today. The new idea – called Emergent gravity -- appears to explain the exact same deviation in the motions of stars in galaxies that are usually explained by inserting dark matter in the theory.

Novae are the main source of Lithium in the universe
A new study has discovered that most of the lithium in the universe is made in exploding stars called novae. The findings are based on observations of an unusually long and bright nova Sagittarii 2015 N.2 which occurred last year.

A new more detailed map of the galaxy
Scientists have created one of the most detailed maps ever of our Milky Way Galaxy. The survey known as HI4PI -- examined neutral atomic hydrogen—the most abundant element in the universe and the main component of stars and galaxies.

November 15th’s super close supermoon
The full Moon on Tuesday, November 15th, will be a little bigger and brighter than normal, because on that day the Moon will be closer to Earth than it’s been in nearly 69 years. At 22:23 Australian Eastern Daylight Time --11:23 Greenwich Mean Time -- the centres of the Moon and Earth will be just 356,509 kilometres apart.

​A crack in Earth's magnetic shield
A crack has been detected in Earth’s magnetosphere. The event -- which lasted over two hours -- was caused by a powerful blast from the Sun known as a Coronal Mass Ejection.

Over 15 thousand potentially deadly near Earth asteroids discovered
Over 15 thousand potentially deadly near Earth asteroids have now been discovered by astronomers. Scientists are now detecting about 30 new asteroids in near Earth orbit’s – so called NEOs -- each week.

NASA opens new deep space communications dish near Canberra
NASA has formally commissioned its latest dish at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex near Tidbinbilla. The new 34 metre antenna -- DSS36 – is part of a 120 million dollar upgrade by NASA to increase capacity at the Canberra facility by building two new dishes.

Japan launches new weather satellite
Japan has launched its new Himawari 9 weather satellite aboard an H-IIA rocket from the Tanegashima Space Centre south of Tokyo.
The new spacecraft together with its twin -- Himawari 8 launched two years ago – will provide the Japan Meteorological Agency and Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology with visible, infrared, and near-infrared images of cloud cover, sea surface temperatures, and particle movements from volcanic eruptions.

China launches its biggest rocket ever
China has carried out the maiden flight of its biggest rocket ever – the new Long March 5. The 57 metre tall heavy lift launch vehicle blasted into orbit from Beijing’s new Wenchang spaceport located on an island in the South China Sea.

Proxima Centauri is more Sun like than previously thought
A new study claims Proxima Centauri is more Sun like than previously thought. The new findings indicate our nearest stellar neighbour other than the Sun undergoes similar magnetic cycles to the Sun which however are far more dramatic.

New Horizons completes its epic data transfer from last year’s close encounter with Pluto
NASA’s New Horizons mission has reached a major milestone with the last bits of science data from the July 2015 Pluto flyby finally transmitted to Earth. The valuable information had been stored on the spacecraft’s digital recorders since last year’s historic close encounter – mission managers being forced to drip feed the data back to Earth because of the huge distances involved.

New Pluto revelations continue to surprize scientists
Meanwhile, data from earlier New Horizons Pluto downloads are continuing to provide surprising discoveries. Following the recent revelation that Pluto contains a large subsurface liquid water ocean -- and earlier discoveries of cryogenic ice volcanos and blue Plutonian skies -- scientists have now confirmed the dwarf planet has some of the brightest spots in the solar system reflecting an amazing 100 percent of the light they receive.

Very close asteroid flyby
Astronomers have just witnessed a really close encounter with an asteroid which zoomed past the Earth between about 75 thousand and 96 thousand kilometres above the ground. The 22 metre wide space rock rocketed past the planet at over 21 kilometres per second just hours after first being spotted by the Mt. Lemmon Sky Survey in Arizona.

SpaceX hopes to be back before the end of the year
SpaceX says it hopes to be back in the air before the end of the year. The company is continuing to work with NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration to determine the cause of September’s launch pad explosion at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base which destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket and its satellite payload.

SKYWATCH
Jonathan Nally the editor of Australian Sky and Telescope Magazine joins us to check out the night skies of November on Skywatch.
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​Recently active lava flows detected on Venus
A new analysis of data from the European Space Agency's Venus Express mission has found evidence of volcanic activity on Earth’s sister planet. The findings add to a growing body of evidence that Venus may still be geologically active.

The origin of Rosetta’s comet
A new study claims Rosetta’s comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko most likely originated in the Kuiper Belt. This distant origin for 67P implies it would be made from primordial material, that existed in their current form since before Earth was born.

Soyuz trio return safely to Earth
Three expedition 49 crew members have returned safely to Earth following their 115 day mission aboard the International Space Station.
The successful landing was also the first atmospheric re-entry of the new Russian Soyuz MS-01 capsule which had been on its maiden flight.

China ready to fly its new Long March 5.
There’s growing evidence that China is getting ready to fly its new Long March 5 heavy lift rocket for the first time. The new heavyweight launcher is capable of lifting over 25 tonnes into low Earth orbit -- that’s more than the European Space Agency’s Ariane 5 ECA and roughly as much as the United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV heavy.